>> Ukrainian forces have now launched their much talked about counteroffensive.

>> Expected to be the biggest military operation in Europe since World War II.

♪♪ >> (speaking Ukrainian): ♪♪ >> NARRATOR: From FRONTLINE and the Associated Press a special presentation of the award-winning film 2000 Meters To Andriivka.

>> (speaking Ukranian): ♪ ♪ (soldier singing) (radio chatter) (explosion booms) (soldier muttering) (indistinct speaking over radio) (soldier spits out debris) (sighing) (distant gunfire) -(chatter) -(explosion booms) (chatter on radio) (gunfire echoes in distance) (nearby gunfire) (gunfire continues) (rapid firing) (soldier exhaling) (chatter on radio) (explosion booms) (mortar whistles) -(distant men shouting) -(mortars exploding) (man exclaiming) (men shouting) (engine revving) (engine continues revving) (engine continues revving) (soldier grunts) -(explosions boom) -(men screaming) (thunder rumbles) (distant gunfire and explosions intensify) (Piro shouts) (groaning in pain) (Piro groaning in pain) (distant explosion booms) (mortar whistles by, explodes) ♪ ♪ (wind blowing) ♪ ♪ REPORTER 1 (voice-over): Both Ukraine and Russia are reporting fierce fighting along the frontlines.

REPORTER 2 (voice-over): Ukrainian forces have now launched their much talked about counteroffensive.

REPORTER 3 (voice-over): The new counteroffensive, expected to be the biggest military operation in Europe since World War II.

REPORTER 4 (voice-over): Russian forces are concentrated, they are deeply embedded.

They've been building fortifications and defenses.

With virtually no independent reporting from the frontlines, it's impossible to assess the degree to which Ukraine's operation is underway or whether it's having success.

MSTYSLAV CHERNOV (voice-over): I want to tell you a story.

A story thousands of years old.

A story of men fighting for their land.

There is a forest in Eastern Ukraine, a narrow strip of trees squeezed between two minefields.

The only way to Andriivka, a village on the outskirts of Bakhmut.

This is a story of this forest and the people who will remain there forever.

♪ ♪ 6:00 a.m.

We are in the 3rd Assault Brigade headquarters.

The Ukrainian counteroffensive is underway.

>> (speaking Ukranian): CHERNOV (voice-over): Here on the eastern front, the brigade's task had been to move through 2,000 meters, approximately one mile, of the heavily fortified forest and capture the strategic village of Andriivka.

This would cut the Russian supply road to the occupied city of Bakhmut.

And we want to be there when it happens.

But it's hard for journalists to get to the battlefield.

Our only chance is to meet with Fedya, the officer on the ground.

>> (speaking Ukranian): CHERNOV (voice-over): He is busy.

>> (speaking Ukranian): CHERNOV (voice-over): Duda, the coordinating officer, has an idea.

>> (speaking Ukranian): CHERNOV (voice-over): We manage to convince them to take us.

>> (speaking Ukranian): CHERNOV (voice-over): Duda tells us we are idiots for wanting to go.

>> (speaking Ukranian): CHERNOV (voice-over): Duda sends a flag and a note to Fedya.

If Andriivka is liberated, his task will be to raise the flag.

>> (speaking Ukranian): (bullets clattering) >> (speaking Ukranian): CHERNOV (voice-over): Wearing the blue journalist vest on the battlefield is no longer an option.

It makes us priority targets.

>> (speaking Ukranian): CHERNOV (voice-over): If we are lucky, today we'll get to Fedya and film him raising the flag.

But we are all nervous.

The forest leading to the village has killed many men.

(gear clattering) (door slams shut) CHERNOV (voice-over): Before departing, I kept looking at the map.

2,000 meters.

Three months.

It didn't make sense.

Why did it take so long?

Then they showed us.

Videos from helmet cameras, drones.

Records of all the violent battles on the way to Andriivka.

Each one an attempt to get closer.

Each one taking its toll.

(bullets bouncing off vehicle) >> (speaking Ukranian): -(guns rapid-firing) -(men screaming) (bullets echoing) (men yelling) -(explosion booms) -(men groaning) (tank fires) (gun clicking) (gun firing) (soldier panting) (distant explosion echoes) (gunfire echoing) ♪ ♪ CHERNOV (voice-over): Some of these battles gained ground.

Some pushed the brigade back.

But they kept fighting.

And now we follow their steps.

>> (speaking Ukranian): CHERNOV (voice-over): 8:30 a.m.

Our transport reaches the forest.

One of the soldiers tells me, "It's like landing on a planet where everything is trying to kill you."

But it's not another planet, I tell myself.

It's the middle of Europe.

Now we have to get to Fedya.

But instead of him, we meet one of his soldiers with the call sign "Freak."

>> (speaking Ukranian): CHERNOV (voice-over): He calls us "pencils" so that the Russians intercepting radio chatter don't know we arrived.

>> (speaking Ukranian): CHERNOV (voice-over): The battles moved forward, closer to the village, leaving the destroyed armored vehicles and bodies behind.

The fields and the roads around were mined by the Russians.

The forest is the only way.

(distant explosion booms) >> (speaking Ukranian): CHERNOV (voice-over): The village is 2,000 meters ahead.

35 seconds for a mortar shell to fly.

A two-minute drive.

A ten-minute run.

But here, time doesn't matter.

Distance does.

And it's measured by pauses between the explosions.

(explosion booms) (explosion booms) >> (speaking Ukranian): CHERNOV (voice-over): I hear over the radio that Fedya is in the middle of the fight.

The battle in Andriivka is raging.

>> (speaking Ukranian): (man speaks on radio) (explosion booms) (helicopter whirring in distance) (laughing) (explosions boom in distance) (laughter) (chatter over radio) CHERNOV (voice-over): As we talk, I'm thinking about Andriivka, focusing on the radio chatter and losing the thread of the conversation.

But the camera keeps recording.

Freak was 12 when Russia invaded Ukraine in 2014.

When the full-scale invasion started, he left university, returned to his hometown, and joined the territorial defense.

From there, he moved to the 3rd Assault Brigade.

At the time we speak, he is 22.

Five months from now, he will be injured in a battle for another forest, his body never found.

>> (speaking Ukranian): ♪ ♪ CHERNOV (voice-over): Freak told us how the brigade fought for this part of the forest, trying to push Russians from their trenches.

Halfway to Andriivka.

Their helmet cameras captured every step of the battle.

>> (speaking Ukranian): (soldier yelling) (gunshots firing) (machine guns firing) (soldier shouting) (gunshots firing) (soldier screams) (gunshots firing) (soldier groans) (soldier groans) (man speaking on radio) (rocket whizzes by and explodes) (gunshots firing) (men talking) >> (speaking Russian): >> (speaking Ukranian): (rocket whizzes by and explodes) (man speaking on radio) (gunshots firing) >> (speaking Russian): (man speaking on radio) (projectile whizzes by) CHERNOV (voice-over): It's now 10:00 a.m.

We are still pinned down in this damned foxhole, waiting to get to Fedya.

>> (speaking Ukranian): -(drones buzzing) -(gunfire in distance) CHERNOV (voice-over): At last, we start moving.

Andriivka is now 1,000 meters ahead.

Halfway.

The smell of death, explosives, and freshly cut trees becomes stronger.

I try to focus on what needs to be done.

We need to be there when Fedya raises the flag.

>> (speaking Ukranian): (explosions rumbling in distance) CHERNOV (voice-over): 11:00 a.m.

We finally reach Fedya.

>> (speaking Ukranian): CHERNOV (voice-over): His first question to us: "Where are your guns?"

>> (speaking Ukranian): CHERNOV (voice-over): Fedya is 24.

Battle-promoted to sergeant.

He has a scar on his lip from playing war in his childhood and a job in a warehouse before the invasion.

>> (speaking Ukranian): CHERNOV (voice-over): Freak gives him the flag and a note from headquarters, and he settles in a dugout to read it.

>> (speaking Ukranian): (explosions boom in distance) CHERNOV (voice-over): I knew what he meant when he said he never wanted to be a soldier.

None of us did.

>> (speaking Ukranian): CHERNOV (voice-over): When we were children, every boy in the school got military lessons.

We marched, assembled and disassembled Kalashnikovs.

We shot.

Ten bullets for each young man.

But few of us saw any point in this.

There was no one to fight with.

We had no enemies.

>> (speaking Ukranian): CHERNOV (voice-over): Before each battle, Fedya trains his men.

>> (speaking Ukranian): CHERNOV (voice-over): He shouts at them and swears heavily.

He knows that some of them will die.

>> (speaking Ukranian): CHERNOV (voice-over): When Russia invaded Ukraine, each one of us had to make a choice.

I took a camera and started filming.

Fedya took a gun.

He was sure Ukraine will win this war.

♪ ♪ >> (speaking Ukranian): CHERNOV (voice-over): Fedya told us, after the brigade liberated two-thirds of the forest, it was his battalion's turn to push forward, the first assault operation for many of his men.

>> (speaking Ukranian): (officers conversing) CHERNOV (voice-over): In headquarters, Duda and other officers guided Fedya and his team through the battlefield.

>> (speaking Ukranian): (soldiers talking) (gunshots firing) (gunshots firing) (gunshots firing) >> (speaking Russian): (rapid gunfire intensifies) >> (speaking Ukranian): (men at headquarters exclaiming) (guns firing) (chuckling) (bomb whistling through air) (rapid gunfire) ♪ ♪ CHERNOV (voice-over): Another 300 meters were taken.

But the further they advanced, the harder it was to keep pushing.

Medics could not believe all these casualties were coming from that tiny forest.

>> (speaking Ukranian): CHERNOV (voice-over): If they continued losing so many men, they would not be able to finish the offensive.

REPORTER 1 (voice-over): U.S.

officials say Ukraine's much anticipated offensive is slowly moving forward.

REPORTER 2 (voice-over): Progress is modest but steady, according to the Ukrainian forces, as they reclaim villages and trenches dug by Russian forces.

Ukraine says it has liberated several villages from the Russians in recent days.

REPORTER 3 (voice-over): Villagers emerged from the basements, the bunkers they'd been hiding in, and were overjoyed to see Ukrainian troops there, to see the blue and yellow Ukrainian flag flying over their village once again.

>> (speaking Ukranian): Over in the northeast, that cauldron of violence, Bakhmut, has also been the scene of some Ukrainian gains of a few kilometers in recent days.

REPORTER 4 (voice-over): Ukraine also taking high casualties.

REPORTER 5 (voice-over): Ukraine is a relative David to Russia's Goliath.

They can't afford to lose three times the soldiers that Russia does, so it has to proceed carefully.

If that isn't good enough, and actually they still end up in a stalemate, Western confidence is likely to dip.

REPORTER 6 (voice-over): If we're not getting results here, then perhaps Ukraine wants to think about another plan, even some land concessions for peace.

REPORTER 7 (voice-over): If Ukraine falls, then Russian forces will be on Europe's doorstep.

It becomes NATO's war.

(soldiers chattering) (soldier shouting in pain) (shouting continues) ♪ ♪ (man panting) (weapon firing) (distant explosion echoes) (radio chatter) (man panting) (panting continues) (distant explosion echoes) (explosion booms) (rapid gunfire in distance) CHERNOV (voice-over): 1:30 p.m.

We stop again to wait for the artillery duel to finish.

The day seems endless.

(distant explosions echo) After his injury, Fedya was sent to the hospital.

He quickly recovered and returned to the forest.

>> (speaking Ukranian): (talking over radio) (radio chatter) (explosion booms) (distant rumbling) (rolling paper crinkling) (mortar whistling closer) (Sheva exhales) CHERNOV (voice-over): Sheva is 46.

At the beginning of the counteroffensive, he left a comfortable position in the military police to volunteer with the 3rd Assault Brigade.

He will be injured in a battle five months from now and will die in a hospital.

>> (speaking Ukranian): (distant boom echoes) ♪ ♪ CHERNOV (voice-over): For the next battle, Fedya's friend and second in command, Gagarin, replaced him in the forest.

>> (speaking Ukranian): CHERNOV (voice-over): He was 24.

Hometown: Polonne, Western Ukraine.

He worked as a truck driver in Europe.

When the full-scale invasion started, he returned and volunteered.

He led the platoon to battle.

They had to move another 300 meters and reach the end of the forest.

After that, it was Andriivka.

(soldiers shouting) >> (speaking Ukranian): CHERNOV (voice-over): His friend Kobzar followed him on the battlefield.

>> (speaking Ukranian): (guns firing) (guns firing) (empty gun clicking) (rapid gunfire exchange) ♪ ♪ (woman vocalizing) ♪ ♪ (woman vocalizing) CHERNOV (voice-over): Gagarin was laid to rest in his hometown, Polonne, 972 kilometers from Andriivka.

And the entire neighborhood came to his funeral to be with his mother as she cried.

They said it was the 56th funeral here.

♪ ♪ (people conversing) >> (speaking Ukranian): CHERNOV (voice-over): Kobzar, the soldier who held Gagarin's hand as he was dying in the forest, will be killed five months from now by a drone strike in a battle for another village.

♪ ♪ >> (speaking Ukranian): ♪ ♪ REPORTER 1 (voice-over): Western officials have expressed disappointment in a much vaunted counteroffensive, which began in June.

Ukraine has only taken back an estimated 100 square miles of territory since then.

REPORTER 2 (voice-over): Well, U.S.

intelligence is now saying that Ukraine will fail to meet their counteroffensive key goals.

REPORTER 3 (voice-over): How sustainable is this level of support when there's really no end in sight to the war?

REPORTER 4 (voice-over): Russia has millions more men from whom to draw.

There's no path to a military victory here, only more death.

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ (woman vocalizing) (woman vocalizing) (woman vocalizing) ♪ ♪ (woman vocalizing) (woman vocalizing) CHERNOV (voice-over): The counteroffensive was failing.

Few believed Ukraine could advance any further.

But the brigade decided to make its last stand.

As Gagarin was laid to rest, the final battle for Andriivka began.

♪ ♪ (soldier breathing heavily) >> (speaking Ukranian): CHERNOV (voice-over): All the battalions gathered their forces.

First, they took positions on the edge of the forest and in houses on the outskirts.

Then, under the cover of the smoke screen bombs, they moved in.

>> (speaking Ukranian): (men talking on radio) (explosion detonates) (gunshots firing) (distant explosion echoes) (man talking over radio) (gunshots firing) (explosion booms) (soldier shouting) (man shouting) (rapid gunfire in distance) (explosions roar in distance) (rocket whizzes by, explodes) (soldiers talking) (rocket whizzes by, explodes) ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ CHERNOV (voice-over): 2:00 p.m.

We are a hundred meters from Andriivka.

>> (speaking Ukranian): CHERNOV (voice-over): Fedya instructs us to start moving.

>> (speaking Ukranian): CHERNOV (voice-over): We are finally in Andriivka.

As Russians retreated, their artillery shot indiscriminately.

They were erasing the village from the map.

In the last 100 meters, there are bodies scattered everywhere.

Mostly Russians.

A few Ukrainians.

As we walk in, Fedya receives a message that one of the soldiers in his platoon has been injured.

>> (speaking Ukranian): (explosions boom) CHERNOV (voice-over): He's severely shell-shocked.

>> (speaking Ukranian): CHERNOV (voice-over): We run to the ruins of another house.

This one at least has a basement.

>> (speaking Ukranian): (objects clattering) (explosion booms) (rock crumbling) (laughs) (explosion booms nearby) CHERNOV (voice-over): We settle in the basement, and artillery keeps hitting us.

It's only now the understanding comes to me.

We really are in Andriivka.

But the village doesn't exist anymore.

Among the ruins, there is hardly a place to raise the flag.

The villagers are dead or gone.

Everything is destroyed.

People, animals, memories.

And all that is left of it is a name.

♪ ♪ >> (speaking Ukranian): (man speaking on radio) -(explosion booms) -(debris rains on basement) (nearby explosion booms) (distant gunfire echoes) CHERNOV (voice-over): I don't argue, but I doubt it will happen.

I know Ukraine doesn't have enough resources to continue the counteroffensive.

I know the Russians will continue to reduce cities to a state where there aren't even bricks left.

And the longer it all goes on, the less the world will care about it.

I'm afraid this land will remain frozen frontline for years.

(Fedya speaking faintly) >> (speaking Ukranian): (explosion booms) (men chatting quietly) (explosion booms) (cat meows) (rocket whizzes by, explodes) (soldier coughing) ♪ ♪ (cat meows) (radio beeps) ♪ ♪ (radio beeps) (Fedya speaking) (distant explosions echo) (cat meows) ♪ ♪ CHERNOV (voice-over): 8:00 p.m.

When we were sitting in the basement, Fedya told me, in his dreams, he fights like hell in this forest.

Then he wakes up and goes back to the battle.

And I thought, this war is a nightmare none of us can wake up from.

I envy Fedya because he believes we will.

He has the names of his friends and the cities he has lost and a gun and a flag to avenge them.

>> (speaking Ukranian): (cat meows) (exhales) ♪ ♪ (sniffs) (woman vocalizing) (muffled rifle salute) ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ (woman vocalizing) ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ (music fades) >> NARRATOR: Go to pbs.org/frontline for more on the making of this film.

>> When Russia invaded Ukraine, each one of us had to make a choice.

I took a camera and started filming.

>> NARRATOR: And see all our previous reporting and films on Russia's war in Ukraine.

Connect with FRONTLINE on Facebook and Instagram and stream anytime on the PBS app, YouTube, or pbs.org/frontline.

Captioned by Media Access Group at WGBH access.wgbh.org >> For more on this and other "FRONTLINE" programs, visit our website at pbs.org/frontline.

♪ ♪ FRONTLINE's "2000 Meters To Andriivka" is available on Amazon Prime Video.

♪ ♪